REVIEW: 'As Bees in Honey Drown'

The cast of Wagner College's production of "As Bees in Honey Drown" with playwright Douglas Carter Beane.

There is something about a person who is in command and lives the charmed life. Seeing them makes you want to be with them and absorb their essence in hopes of the charm rubbing off onto you.

And apparently that could even account for a brief change in sexual orientation. That tidbit was the only thing that's difficult to believe in Douglas Carter Beane's play, "As Bees in Honey Drown" which opened last week and continues through Sunday at Wagner College's Stage One theater.

That point withstanding, the six-member cast (including four actors playing multiple roles) turned in a solid performance, finding and using Beane's sass, wit and humor to move action seamlessly forward in the two-hour piece.

Douglas Carter Beane has fashioned a script with a string of one-line zingers, witty repartee and potential challenges for the fast-talking Alexa Vere de Vere character played by Victoria Gillette who effortlessly wraps herself around the bevy of words and is utterly believable and genuine. She wears 5-inch heels as easily as she would a pair of slippers.

Alexa whirls through couture, wears fabulous shoes and clothes, drops names, $100 bills and people in her quest for the good life.

Beane's story centers around Vere de Vere who swoops in to offer Evan Wyler (Tavis Doucette), debut novelist and rising star, a chance of a lifetime in writing her life story and making a movie. Wyler, a gay man, who has sacrificed a lot to become a writer is intrigued and signs on with promises of a grand salary and potential fame. She buys him a suit and shoes, takes him in limo rides with rockers and models and air kisses power brokers. And even when her story apparently has holes in it, Wyler falls deeply under her spell and falls in love before he can see her for what she really is. He, then becomes the most recent pawn in her deceitful web and is nearly destroyed until he is able to emerge and unravel Vere de Vere's lacework and recover his muse.

Doucette is most effective as the floundering victim trying to piece the puzzle of Alexa together, though there is not enough progression to justify being totally and all-consuming love.

The line between character and caricature is very thin and sometimes Kevin Callaghan as the photographer, hotel clerk and rocker/model, came dangerously close to the unsavory side in the pursuit it seems to make the characters larger than life.

Kudos to director John Saunders for not getting bogged down in the potential props and set changes and allowing his actors to explore. The minimalist cubes and boards work to create several locales. Costume designer, Caitlin Maxwell assembled some high-fashion threads to make a flawless Vere de Vere.